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Using Concourse for peer feedback

Discussion topics in Concourse (Blackboard Vista at ND) can be set to allow peer review. Defined broadly, “peer review” is a process whereby one’s equals check one’s work to ensure it meets specific criteria. College professors often have students use a form of peer review to give their classmates valuable feedback on their work, while at the same time giving the student reviewers an eye-opening experience.

You should know how discussions work in Concourse before trying to use the peer review tool. For help, see the howto guide. When creating a discussion topic, you will see the peer review options at the bottom of the page. Feedback can be given using a simple rating scale, or the instructor may choose to create a more complicated “grading form” (a rubric tool we’ll discuss in the future). Students will see reviews for their own messages, and can be allowed to see reviews for other messages in the discussion. Reviewers’ names can be released or kept anonymous.

Here’s what happens after the discussion topic has been created: while viewing a message, a student would clicks Review this Message. The reviewer selects a rating, enters a comment, and clicks Save. After a message has been reviewed, the student author can go to the message and click View All Reviews.